Well hello my Rebels! Welcome to a year in review. I know this blog hasn’t been around for a full year but I’m ready to review what worked and possibly didn’t work this year. My first blog and website debut was April but I did get it started in March (there was a learning curve for Word Press and I had to teach myself and it was wild!). It was pretty interesting to take what little info I had learned in helping a marketing department at my last job and attempting in broadening it on my own and asking questions where I could. It hasn’t been an easy year for a lot of people and myself included. I wish that all of us heal from this year and look to the future of next year with positivity and love. Manifest that shit, say it everyday and move forward to be the best bitch you can be! Only you can prevent forest fires – I don’t know who needs to hear that but maybe someone does. With that being said, leave your beauty standards at the door and take a magical journey of what my blog becomes for 2022…
Videos: I’m ready. I’ve said this before but I’ve spent years not thinking I would be good at it or I can’t watch myself. That ends this year. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time on TikTok and I’m here to tell you, if half of the people I’ve seen can go live, I 100% can do 3 minutes or less videos showcasing what I love and sharing any tips that could help a person feel a little more confident putting makeup on. My shenanigan’s are cheeky and fun, but often tragic so that adds spice. Always a possibility I’ll end up in an actual MUA’s video of what not to do (= free press so that’s neat). This might not happen right away but know it’s my #1 project of 2022. I’m a perfectionist working on being easier on myself, so as Adele sings, “go easy on me.” I will conquer this!
Social Media: My presence hasn’t been that great and I’ve been struggling with ideas so I’m going to be releasing polls on Facebook and/or Instagram to help me gauge what you guys are looking for in a beauty/makeup/skincare blog. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I knew that going in. However, if you’re anything like me, you love knowing random facts about all kinds of shit (I love blurting out random facts on cults, paranormal and other odd topics). I’d like to post at least once a day and one thing I’ll be doing is “Getting to Know Ingredients,” there’s a lot of talk on what is in or not in your makeup & skincare products and are they good for you or not. I’ll try to take a neutral side so you can make the decision for yourself but, at the end of the day I will add my final thoughts on it because I can and I will. Shocking right? So maybe 1 ingredient per week so no one gets overwhelmed and I’ll make it understandable because we aren’t all scientists. I’m certainly not and a breakdown is super helpful. I also want to broaden the new releases of products from underground (up and coming), drugstore to high end. They are not always created equal but they all deserve to be seen. Again, I’ll be sending out polls on social media so please do me a solid and help me out by taking these quick polls. Please. I promise not to release too many in a single day and I’ll stretch them out within a couple of weeks. Promise! I will also strive to keep the polls going to alter what isn’t working! Or focus what is working and continue to make it even better.
Skincare Specific: According to my statistics you guys are flocking to my skincare articles. I saw a lot of foot traffic on my Dollar Store Skincare and my seasonal skincare (what I’m currently using). I plan on keeping those types of articles going: twice a year on what I’m currently using and full skincare lines that are affordable or products that are worth splurging on. Sometimes we need to treat ourselves and hopefully I can help you do it.
Makeup Specific: “Smash or Pass” has done well and you guys seem to like those. I will promise you to always be truthful in my opinions of products no matter what. There’s too many fake claims going on out there and you deserve the truth, “through my eyes and my skin.” I have honored that and will continue to do that until I die. Lying about a product does nothing but bring false hope and lost trust. That’s not what I want this blog to be. There’s enough of that already going around and I want no part of that.
BoxyCharm Subscription: Has been cancelled as of right now. “But you never shut up about them Courtney!” Very true BUT, they’ve raised their prices a couple times in the last 2 years. As I know how the economy works, I understand why they have to. However, to raise a quarterly box from $50 to $60 in a year turns me the hell off! I know it’s probably one of the best box subscriptions out there, I want to focus on what I have in my collection or putting that money towards a quarterly haul from other companies (may it be an up and coming brand, to a high end product I’ve been waiting for). As much as it makes me uncomfortable, maybe doing more “mystery” boxes that I have 0 control over. Life isn’t always controllable but those life surprises teach you flexibility and being able to roll with the punches. Something I’ve learned this year, it’s scary but I survived. Just keep swimming…
ColourPop: *sigh* They’ve aggravated me this year. From poorly planned releases to changing their mind to make more money. They told their customers they needed to purchase the FULL new Hocus Pocus set to get this basic “limited edition” smelling candle. Oh but they “heard what the customer wanted” and made it available to be purchased on its own AFTER the release. Not only that, it took a month after I received the makeup AND the candle itself detached from the glass base (not a huge deal but how about you get some quality control with all of the money you made off of your greed? Maybe?) Ok I got it out. I haven’t purchased from them since the Hocus Pocus release and I was also not happy with their Mystery Box as well. I would of preferred them calling those boxes, the “Shit We Couldn’t Sell and We Had Too Much Product.” I did get a few things I kept but most of it went to other people as gifts and I noticed A LOT of the boxes we’re almost exactly the same when I watched the videos people did. I also didn’t even want to acknowledge it happened in my blog. I wanted to wait and do it here with my final thoughts. When I get mad, angry or disappointed I really like to sit and think about if I’m mad for the right reasons. What could of been out of their control? Also reading reviews to see if the feeling is mutual or not. I find myself being 0 or 100 and I’m gearing up to change that and hit the appropriate reaction in a better amount of time. With that being said, I want to give ColourPop my continued business because at the end of the day, their quality of cosmetics hasn’t wavered and I hope they choose their customer over profit more times then not. Sometimes we have bad years and we all deserve to prove our worth and show that we might of lost our footing, but we can come back and be better then ever.
2022 is going to be full of greatness. I won’t let it be anything less then amazing, hard, uncomfortable but SO rewarding and I refuse to have a repeat of this year. It’s not all flowers and rainbows, but I can always chose how I react and how I get through it. So, will you leave your beauty standards at the door and take this journey with me into 2022? If not, your loss. If so, stay classy and make good decisions. Happy New Year and see you on the other side.
*Keep up to date with my link tree, HERE. Thank you all for your year long support and more!!!*
Rebel Beauty Courtney 